Danielle Smith invokes Sovereignty Act to shield Alberta from Trudeau’s clean energy regulations

“Enough! Today, Alberta said NO to Minister Stephen Guilbeault’s ‘Clean Energy Regulations.’ Our province has jurisdictional rights afforded to us under the constitution,” Smith said on X (formerly Twitter).

“The Supreme Court and Federal Court have already ruled on the matter. It’s time for the Trudeau government to stop ignoring the rule of law and start acting like a national government, working collaboratively with the provinces.”

Smith said that due to Trudeau’s destructive environmental regulations, Alberta was left with “no choice but to create a shield to protect Albertans from Ottawa’s dangerous and unconstitutional electricity regulations.”

“We have tried to work with Ottawa to align their emissions-reduction efforts with our provincial plan to achieve a carbon-neutral power grid by 2050. Unfortunately, after months of meetings, they continue to reject this opportunity and remain committed to an absurdly unrealistic and unattainable goal of a net-zero power grid by 2035,” Smith said Monday after introducing the first “Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act” resolution motion in the provincial legislature.

“They may be willing to expose Albertans to high costs, blackouts and brownouts, but we are not, and we will continue to ensure Albertans are protected from these destructive and unconstitutional federal policies,” she said.

Two recent court rulings dealt a serious blow to the Trudeau government’s environmental activism via legislation. The most recent was the Federal Court of Canada on November 16 overturning the Trudeau government’s ban on single-use plastic, calling it “unreasonable and unconstitutional.”

The Federal Court ruled in favor of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan by stating that Trudeau’s government had overstepped its authority by classifying plastic as “toxic,” as well as banning all single-use plastic items, like straws, bags, and eating utensils.

The second victory for Alberta and Saskatchewan concerns a Supreme Court ruling that stated that Trudeau’s law, C-69, dubbed the “no-more pipelines” bill, is “mostly unconstitutional.” The decision returned authority over the pipelines to provincial governments, meaning oil and gas projects headed up by the provinces should be allowed to proceed without federal intrusion.

The Trudeau government, however, seems insistent on defying the recent rulings by pushing forward with its various regulations.

The Trudeau government’s current environmental goals – in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” – include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades.

The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – an organization in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.

Alberta has full authority under the Constitution to regulate its own power generation

The Alberta government notes that, according to the Constitution of Canada, “legislating and regulating the development of electricity explicitly falls within the jurisdiction of the province (Section 92A (1) (c)).”

The United Conservative Party (UCP) government under Smith says by invoking the “Sovereignty Act” it will be able to protect Albertans from “future brownouts, blackouts and soaring costs.”

“This resolution asks the legislative assembly of Alberta for approval to take strong, effective action over the coming months and years to counteract the harms and risks to Albertans posed by the federal CERs (Clean Energy Regulations),” the UCP says.

A draft version of the federal government’s “Clean Electricity Regulations” (CER) introduced by Guilbeault projects billions in higher costs associated with a so-called “green” power transition, especially in the resource-rich provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, which use natural gas and coal to fuel power plants.

Business executives in Alberta’s energy sector have also sounded the alarm over the Trudeau government’s “green” transition, saying it could lead to unreliability in the power grid.

As for Smith, she said that is asking the “federal government to follow the law.”

Last week, Smith indicated that she would be soon using all the tools at her disposal to take on Trudeau.

She said he was running a “lawless federal government” for pushing ahead with his 2035 net zero energy law despite the fact Canada’s constitution allows provinces full jurisdiction over their natural resources.

The Trudeau government is trying to force net zero regulations on all Canadian provinces, notably on electricity generation, as early as 2035. His government has also refused to extend a carbon tax exemption on heating fuels to all provinces, allowing only Atlantic provinces this benefit.

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